Expedition 27 Resumes Busy Schedule With New Crew Members

The six-member Expedition 27 crew is back to work after docking activities on Wednesday and an off-duty day Thursday. They reviewed roles, responsibilities and emergency procedures and conducted the usual complement of science and maintenance activities.

New flight engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrey Borisenko were busy inside the Russian segment of the International Space Station. Samokutyaev worked on a science experiment that measures radiation inside the orbital laboratory. Borisenko unloaded cargo from the newly docked Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft.

Flight Engineer Ron Garan, who also joined Expedition 27 on Wednesday night, worked in the American side of the space station. Garan checked out the Water Processing Assembly in the Destiny laboratory and worked on cooling loops in the Columbus laboratory.

Commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman worked on Russian and American spacesuits. Kondratyev checked out the batteries inside the Russian Orlan spacesuits. Nespoli and Coleman were in the Quest airlock resizing U.S. spacesuits and recharging metal oxide canisters ahead of the four spacewalks planned during the STS-134 mission.

Nespoli also continued packing gear for return to Earth aboard space shuttle Endeavour when STS-134 ends. Coleman spent time in the Kibo laboratory working with the Nanoskeleton experiment. The Japanese investigation aims to clarify the effect of gravity on oil flotation, sedimentation and convection in crystals generated in microgravity.

As part of the ongoing Crew Earth Observations experiment, crew members had an opportunity to photograph several areas across the globe Friday. Targets included the Shebelle and Juba River fans in Somalia, the Sian Kaan Bay Mangroves of Yucatan Peninsula and the capital cities of Barbados and the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Ground controllers monitored space debris Thursday night and determined the station crew members were safe and would not have to take any precautionary measures. The station did perform a debris avoidance maneuver last Friday to avoid remnants from a satellite collision in February 2009.